 We're going to be competitive about something. Choose wisely. So my talk today is, does this business make my Buddha seed look big? And so just to show of hands, who meditates here? Yeah. Who goes for walks in nature? Yeah. Ooh. Who punches light shades in the back there? Who gets great ideas in the shower? Yeah. Who hasn't raised their hand yet? Good. Okay. Good. We got everybody now. Okay. So for me, Buddha seed is really that spark of life, that bit of us that bubbles up when we let it. And that drives us towards beauty and joy and connection. And I think we have a really strong and powerful role to play in bringing that to business. So this is what this is about. Now, I caution you that if you try to Google a good definition for Buddha seed, there's a lot of cannabis talk. Welcome to Big Buddha Seeds. That's not what it meant. I meant the other definition of like our Buddha nature. Now if you're sitting there thinking, oh Jesus, when are we going to learn how to make money with improv? My talk is only 10 minutes long. Hang in there. This is really for people who are on the fence, because I was on the fence. So when I first started doing this stuff, I thought I had to go in the business as usual door. But the more that I did workshops, the more that it affected me and the more that I wanted to push it and see where I could take it. So I kind of hopped off the fence. And this is what this story is about. Okay. So this picture is of me in Berlin this summer, it was taken this summer. And I'm standing in front of a picture of the Berlin wall from 1971, because that's the year I was born. And in Berlin, what I'm learning, I'm in the process of moving there, because it's another city I haven't lived in yet, I'm in the process of moving there. And in Berlin, I'm actually considered incredibly radical because of three things. I'm straight, I don't smoke, and I have no tattoos. And it's just, I happen to like dudes, I'm asthmatic, and I hate needles. It's very easy. But if I was going to get a tattoo, I would get this. I love this model from Robert Pointon, I'm sorry you guys can't see. I love this model from Robert Pointon. I think it's so powerful, it's such an elegant expression of what we do. Because we're inviting people constantly to let go, and particularly let go of something that's not serving you. Let go of the need to control in this moment. Let go of the need to be right. Let go of something that you can feel is working against you. Notice more. Notice more about how your colleagues are doing. Notice more about the state of the world, the environment. Notice more about stuff that matters. And then use it. Do something about it. Use everything. I really love this model. It's in Robert Pointon's, I read it in Robert Pointon's book, Everything's an Offer, and there's another do lectures book that he wrote on improv, which he goes into it further. Because the more I did this stuff, the more I realized that actually the improv that we do is incredibly radical for this one simple thing. It's our basic message to people is you are enough as you are. Go shine. And we're doing this in a world which is constantly saying you are not enough, please buy something. Who's a Stargate fan? So for me, I feel like every time we do a workshop, we are taking people to a different world, but a world that is actually closer to our nature, that's closer to life, that's closer to connection and love. Every time we push the let go, notice more, use everything into the Stargate, and we go into this amazing world. We're really getting people closer to where we should be. And so when we come back to this world, it becomes almost more disorienting. It becomes like, well, why can't we do this more often? Why can't we be like this every day? This is one of my favorite comedians, Bill Hicks. And he used to go into bars and he would tell dick jokes so he could also tell the bar crew stuff like this. And he says, it's only a choice, no effort, no work, no job, no savings of money, just a simple choice right now between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your door, buy guns, close yourself off, and the eyes of love instead see all of us as one. And I'm going to let Ian on a secret, improv is a love technology. It really brings people together. And it says, you are enough. I really see you. Let's play. So how can we bring this into business? What does this have to do with business? I'm usually playing, at the moment, my projects are usually playing with this sort of idea, if you think adventure is dangerous, try routine. It's lethal. Who feels this on a daily basis? Yes, who? I'm usually looking at it in terms of climate change and things like that. So if we don't change what we're doing, if we don't go into an adventure of the unknown and change the way that we're doing stuff, it's going to be a lot more dangerous. But in a particular case, I was reflecting, what's happening to the dog over there? Is he okay? I'm reflecting on, I did a project with General Motors around 2010, and it was on marketing excellence. And what struck me when I worked with General Motors was business as a machine was the major metaphor that was operating and that everybody was in fear. They were in fear of their jobs, they were stressed, it was not a good people company at all. And something that really struck with me, stuck with me, is two years later I saw this, this image. This image is of a guy named Jorge Parre who is in, who's in Columbia and he used to work for one of the GM factories. And it destroyed his health. And when he couldn't work anymore, they just fired him. And there was a bunch of people like him. And he was so desperate that he sewed his mouth shut on hunger strike to make a point that he just wanted to have fair compensation and a little help finding his next job. And when I saw that, it was really like, what am I doing teaching marketing excellence? And this is a personal thing. What am I doing with teaching marketing excellence to a group, to an organization who would treat a person like that? And recently GM was in the news because they had to pay out 900 million, because they knowingly put faulty ignitions into millions of cars and they can at least connect 124 deaths directly to that faulty part that they absolutely knew was in it. You know, do we support people in making a horrible system a bit more bearable so they can get through the day? Or do we try to change the system? Do we really actively and expressly try to change what the systems are doing? And the truth is no matter where we go in, improv is so powerful. If you're doing improv for improv's sake, you're bringing a healing force. It's, hello. It's where do you want to play? It's really where do you want to play because there's grace in both. There's a really beautiful Burning Man image. And it's how, I think our work really aligns, can align the structures with the light inside. It's that whole Buddha seed, you know. Does this business make my Buddha seed look big? Well, let's see if we can use our strengths to really make the structures let the light inside shine within and around. If you're that squirrel on the fence and you're tempted to jump on, here's a jump off the fence. Here's good news. You have backup. You have the pope. You have Naomi Klein. You have 98% of science. There's one of them's in the room back there. And there's a bunch of other people, including a lot of people in this room who saw the Lego movie. Here's something that I think we can do better than most groups, is to remember that he's the special too. There are beautiful people in GM. Everybody is special. Everybody has that light. So it's how can we not create a world of us versus them, worthy and light ones, not so much over there, you know. How can we really embrace people but also help to shift the system, to do it really consciously? So here's been my journey so far. That's me. And I actually had the pleasure of growing up in the forest. I got to play in the forest in the United States and Mexico and Canada. This is me playing, where's Belina? Here's Belina. And my career when I started was pretty gray. So I started working for a big bank. And I was a project manager and I watched a bunch of people burn out. I got an MBA to relax because that's how stressful the bank was. And then I used to do marketing excellence programs. And I really like the marketing door because it's holistic. You can get at everything in the organization, but I didn't like the morals. This was my boss at Citibank, the one who's giving me the finger. And I actually, I'm very proud of that because I made that into a Christmas card and gave it to him and said Citibank is number one. He was an extraordinary manager because we were in the back office of Citibank and it was very business's machine. And what he did, he had the lowest turnover in any department in Citibank because he was so human, but eventually even he burned out. And so we lost a lot of people. Then I got into improv fully. I was connected in 2007. And I started using it as business as usual because I thought I had to go through that door. And I set up a company called Mavic, which means to boisterously celebrate. But I was noticing that I kept trying to, but oh, and sustainability stuff. Into what I was trying to do. So I got inspired by biomimicry people. And I started working with improv and biomimicry. How can we be inspired by how nature does stuff? And I came and I moved here and I created something called the Thriveable World Quest, which is going to be my session tomorrow. And it's a global group. It's a global adventure to reimagine businesses as thriving living systems aligned with nature, and it uses improv to teach people around the world. So if you're curious, come to that. And I'm also doing sustainable stand up. So stand up comedy on sustainability issues for anybody trying to make the world a better place. So when Andy Newman said, stand up hasn't changed in 30 years, he hasn't talked to me yet. The world needs you guys. It really does. The stuff that you're bringing is so vital now in any way you do it. If you help people be more generous, more collaborative, more playful, more open, and reimagine stuff and really connect with their light, you're doing a good job. How big can you take it? Because you guys are the special. Go save the world. Have a brilliant conference.